Jennifer McCarter
Headquarters, Washington, DC March 25, 1999
(Phone: 202/358-1639)
Kelly Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-5111)
Mary Hardin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-0344)
RELEASE: 99-46
NASA EXPERIMENT LAYS GROUNDWORK
FOR 'LIVING OFF THE LAND' ON MARS
NASA engineers have succeeded in a realm often left to
alchemists and magicians -- creating something valuable "out of
thin air." In this case, the thin air was a simulated Martian
atmosphere, and the valuable commodity was oxygen.
"The concept is to use the resources on Mars to reduce the
amount of material that needs to accompany a human mission . . .
to 'live off the land,' " said Principal Investigator David Kaplan
of the Exploration Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
"Producing oxygen using materials readily available on Mars would
be an important step toward reducing the costs and risks of an
eventual human mission to Mars."
This week's demonstration is an initial test of technology
that will be aboard the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, scheduled to
launch April 10, 2001, and land on Mars on January 22, 2002.
Called the Mars In-Situ Propellant Production Precursor, the
experiment will test the feasibility of using the thin Martian
atmosphere to produce oxygen for breathing air and propellants.
Propellants created on Mars could eventually be used to send
samples and astronauts back to Earth.
"The oxygen production technology being tested this week is
based on sound, straightforward chemistry," said Jerry Sanders of
Johnson's Propulsion and Fluid Systems Branch.
The primary test involves an experimental device inside a
Mars environment chamber that selectively absorbs carbon dioxide
from a simulated Martian atmosphere - called "Mars mix" -- and
converts it to oxygen. This technology also may be used to extract
pure oxygen from Earth air for home, medical and military needs.
The atmosphere inside the experiment chamber simulates
Martian temperatures and atmospheric pressures. The "Mars mix" is
95 percent carbon dioxide, thin (almost 150 times thinner than
Earth's atmosphere) and cold (-105 degrees Fahrenheit, or -75
degrees Centigrade, like a typical Martian night).
The mix provides the feedstock for the chemical reaction. A
wafer-thin, solid-oxide ceramic disk made of zirconia, about the
size of a small cookie, is sandwiched between two platinum
electrodes and heated to 1,380 degrees Fahrenheit (750 degrees
Centigrade). When carbon dioxide is fed to this unit, the
zirconia cell "cracks" the carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and
oxygen. Only the oxygen can penetrate through to the other side of
the disk; the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide gases are stopped
in their tracks.
The Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander is expected to provide
essential insights into how to conduct successful, cost-effective
human missions to Mars. The lander's primary science goal is to
explore the mineralogy of the landing site, near the Martian
equator, by taking visible and infrared pictures of the
surrounding terrain and deploying a rover similar to Mars
Pathfinder's Sojourner. Other equipment will analyze the Martian
soil and surface radiation.
The Mars In-Situ Propellant Production Precursor
demonstration is part of Johnson's continuing effort to identify
solutions to the challenges facing future human explorers of other
worlds. The Johnson Space Center is NASA's lead center for the
Human Exploration and Development of Space enterprise.
Mars Surveyor 2001 is part of the Mars Surveyor Program, a
long-term program of Mars exploration managed by the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington, D.C. The laboratory is a division of the California
Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. For more information about
the Mars Surveyor 2001 mission, visit:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/2001/
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